Posts Tagged ‘Season 23

We’ve (they’ve) made it! Before I start this review, I’d like to say that from what I’ve read about this episode, it seems a red reminiscent of The Simpsons Movie, but it doesn’t seem overly copied or terrible, just yet. Let’s roll the tape.

The most meaningless milestone of all – the 500th episode! The couch gag (which was said to make HitFix’s Alan Sepinwall ‘choke up’) was great, actually. Despite its length, the couch gag (going to the very beginning of the couch gags) was nice to see, later panning out to show the couch gags forming a photographic mosaic of the number “500.” Bart’s line, “Bunkerball is keeping us sane” was worthy of a chuckle, if only for a bit; “The Optimist Club” funding the float featuring the slogan “Simpsons, Go to Hell” was another notable line. Other notable quotables/moments: Homer’s crude disguises for him and Marge to sneak into Springfield, along with his amateurish Mr. Burns impression, “I’m sick of watching FOX!” (while watching an actual fox sleep), and Homer referencing Dan Castellaneta’s Walter Matthau-inspired voice (“Remember when we moved in and I talked like this?”) from season one and parts of season two. The guest appearance of Julian Assange was unneeded and unfunny, useful for an overused “WikiLeaks” reference.

I’m a person that doesn’t like open endings (unless you feel as if you are going to be assured later on) on television shows, so I was not a particular fan of the ending, but it wasn’t overly terrible and I’m sure to maintain the status quo, the relocation of all of the town’s residents to the Outlands will be retconned for the following episode. The ending slide, “Get some fresh air before going on the internet and saying how much this sucked,” is yet another self-aware joke from season 23, appropriate for what I (and many other watchers/fans of The Simpsons as of right now) am essentially doing with this review (although I’m not stating this episode sucked per se).

Overall, this was an appropriate 500th episode, at least in my opinion. It was semi-lackluster in jokes (it is season 23, after all), and, in my view, ended too soon (I would have liked to see more of what happened to the residents that kicked the Simpsons family out of Springfield and then moved with them to the Outlands) but it wasn’t overly terrible. Let’s see The Simpsons go for another 100, 200, or 500 more (let’s see).

[Intellectual property – the 500 emblem that I myself put on the couch – yoinked from here!]

We’ve (we’ve? What did we do other than register our disgust at episodes in the post-classic era? More accurate: ‘they’ve’) made it! Tonight at 8pm (7pm central) on FOX, The Simpsons will air its 500th episode, entitled “At Long Last Leave.” To celebrate this (meaningless milestone) occasion, I will review all previous -00th episodes, starting with the 100th (what else?), “Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Baadasssss Song.” (stay tuned!)

[recalling a table read for the 200th episode, “Trash of the Titans] “that was a staggering number. David Mirkin, one of the executive producers, said, ‘Well, we’re halfway home.’ And everybody laughed because it was obvious that there was no way we would be on for 400. So now to have done 500 is really fatiguing,” Matt Groening recalls in an interview with LA Times. On February 8, 2012, FOX, in an effort to place a record in the Guinness Book of World Records for longest continuous television viewing, selected one-hundred “The Simpsons” fans for a marathon of the show, starting from the very first episode. The last remaining as the record was broken would be crowned the winners, and the remaining two, Jeremiah Franco and Carin Shreve, won as the record was broken on February 12, 2012 after reaching the eleventh season of the show; Franco and Shreve were also selected to join the cast and crew for the 500th episode celebration on February 13. Before the US airing on February 19, reviews of the episode have been seen as “generally positive,” HitFix’s Alan Sepinwall reported the “couch gag was marvelous, it actually made me choke up a bit.” TIME writer James Poniewozik, who believes the quality of “The Simpsons” declined at the end of the 1990s, reported that it was an “all right episode,” with a few gags feeling “forced,” but also reporting that “a few moments made me bark out loud and realize why I loved the show in the first place.”

On other things, if for whatever reason you haven’t heard of the plot of tonight’s 500th episode, here it is, coming generously from Wikipedia (along with several of those quotes above!):

The Simpson family discovers that everyone in Springfield has grown tired of them and are secretly planning to have them thrown out of the city. The family moves out of Springfield to a rugged place where Julian Assange becomes their new neighbor.

A tad bit reminiscent of The Simpsons Movie, hm? The plot doesn’t really specify many details other than the overall plot, so nothing can be assumed (at least in my opinion) overly terrible about it, just yet. Let’s wait and see.

As we writers here at Everything Simpsons took an impromptu delay (hell, we knew the delay was coming eventually when we came back, it’s just a matter of time before another “impromptu” delay comes again), I missed four new episodes of The Simpsons, thus rendering me unable to register my disgust with the internet in a matter of seconds of its end. Roll the tapes!

Politically Inept, with Homer Simpson(aired January 8th, 2012)

Before I start this episode, I want to say that I heard nothing from the plot beforehand, so I don’t know what exactly to expect. Let’s see.

Being five minutes in and still having nothing to note, I finally did – Bart refers to YouTube by its proper name, but when the logo is shown, it’s “MyTube?” What was the point? The reference to Bart’s video of Homer being “Jimmy Fallon’d’ was slightly accurate – he takes videos and makes them unfunny. If they had mentioned “unfunny” along with it, it would have been 100% accurate.

Homer’s show beginning with him feeding seed to wooden chickens made me chuckle, but only for a second. Homer’s way of pointing out that he says things people are afraid to say, but not racist things, was a nice reference to the racism on shows like his (FOX News’s shows come as a reminder), I also chuckled at him zooming into “Dateline: Nebraska,” making me also laugh at his expression when he said “soccer.”

This episode seemed short in terms of funniness and entertainment, but overall, it wasn’t overly terrible. I’d give it a B-, 3/5.

Because of the damned football, I will not be able to review “The D’ohcial Network,” so let’s go on to the new episode.

Moe Goes from Rags to Riches (aired January 29th, 2012)

Unlike the previous episode, I (just now, but I read) read about the plot and I’ve come to the verdict that it will be boring. Let us see.

While I like some aspects of the rag’s (yes, a bar rag – there’s nothing wacky at all about that) story, but it is generally boring. Despite being 20 minutes in currently, I see nothing to note, other than that it isn’t overly terrible, but not entertaining either. The story by the rag (out of context, that would seem odd) isn’t stupid, but him being Moe’s best friend nearly reaches that status, and the fight between Bart and Milhouse isn’t noteworthy of entertaining either. Homer (at least a version of him ) chopping off a corn (or was it a bunion?) into the soup during the Depression-era part of the rag’s story was disgusting, to say the least. Homer’s underwear, on the other hand, “saving his strength” for Homer’s bike ride made me chuckle, if only for a little bit.

Overall, this episode wasn’t that funny, but it wasn’t horrible. I’ll give it another 3/5, B-.

The Daughter AlsoRises (aired February 12th, 2012)

Before I start this episode, I’d like to say that my verdict, upon reading the synopsis, is that it won’t be that entertaining, funy, etc. Lt us see.

The couch gag was nice, I liked Apu appearing on Stampy’s back. It was a surprisingly nice couch gag – not too long, overdone, or unfunny. But let us remember it is #499!

“MythCrackers?” How hard, especially when you have the hosts guest-starring, is it to actually reference the real title of the show? (My guess? Incredibly.) Even though I’m at 20 minutes in, I, once again, find nothing extraordinary to note. The episode isn’t particularly funny, nor that entertaining. However, Hemingway’s swordfish appearing to Lisa (“he peed in the fireplace!”) was chuckle-worthy, but that was it for the episode as a whole, really.

Overall, this episode, like the others, wasn’t that funny, but not exceedingly terrible. I’ll give it a 2.5/5, C+.

Hello, once again! I lost (again, I should be better organized) my full review for the sixth episode of The Simpson’s 23rd season, titled “The Man in the Blue Flannel Pants,” but to sum it up in a few words:

The Man in the Blue Flannel Pants (aired November 27th, 2011)

This episode came off as bland, per the usual, and a cheap reference to Mad Men (was it meant to be a reference to Mad Men at all, though? I presume so since John Slattery, who stars in the show, guest starred). “The Diversity Kitties of Meltingpot Mountain” was a joke I enjoyed, along with the subsequent joke of ‘apples-and-oranges-make-pears’. The “sub-plot”, featuring Bart’s blossoming interest in classical literature, was as uninteresting as the A-plot, and seemed to fizzle out even before ten minutes were over. Overall, I’d give this episode a low B-, 3/5.

As for the following episodes, titled “The Ten-Per-Cent Solution” and “Holidays of Future Passed,” respectively, I still (luckily!) have the full reviews for those individual episodes. Without further adieu,

The Ten-Per-Cent Solution (aired December 4th, 2011)
Before I start this episode, I want to say that it reminds me of a simple rehash of “Krusty Gets Kancelled,” but less funny (unfunnier? is that a word?). Nevertheless, roll the tape.

Why is there an abundance of shortened intros lately? In the classic era, there was an occasional shortened intro, but not every episode after another. The reference to “The King’s Speech” was unneeded, not pertaining any revelance to the episode; the accompanying ‘joke’ of Maggie doing the Bellamy (Nazi) salute was in poor taste. Despite not containing any relevance, the “The King’s Speech” reference was partially made up for when they made fun of their own complaints, with Krusty saying that ‘his show looks ‘dated’ and ‘hacky,’ because the references to movies (TKS, “The Social Network,” among others) take so long to animate. A ‘clever’ joke at their expense, I guess. The Hulu reference was another self-aware gag, albeit out of nowhere. The reference to “King of the Hill” was funny; however, the “The Honeymooners” cop-off “The Adventures of Fatso Flannigan” was unfunny, but again there was another self-aware joke, with Marge dismissing “TAOFF” as a “The Honeymooners” rip-off. The callback to Krusty’s superfluous third nipple and bovine birthmark was interesting, although I didn’t notice his pacemaker scar.

There wasn’t anything worthy of note for the rest of the episode; it went here and there, nothing very funny. I’d give this episode a C+, 2.5/5.

Holidays of Future Passed (aired December 11th, 2011)

It’s Xmas (Christmas is an archaic pronunciation) time again! We are given yet another future, post-“Lisa’s Wedding,” episode. The plot seems generally uninteresting at the most; but who knows? Roll the tape.

I enjoyed the couch gag, featuring the family as gingerbread, accompanied by a hand putting a note with “For Santa” written on it, and Homer taking a bite of himself. Marge’s Christmas sweater, which she unveils after Thanksgiving dinner, was a subtle, meaningless thing I enjoyed more so because I see myself wearing such a thing.

Lisa’s flocked spiked-hair, as seen in the photo montage, was a nice (was it even meant to be so?) callback to her ‘do in “Lisa’s Wedding.” Lisa’s marrying of Milhouse and later having children with him is a (semi-) cop-out, because I don’t really see Lisa consider marrying Milhouse, but it’s not that much of a bother. Still in the montage, I notice Jenda? Isn’t she Bart’s (didn’t she become ex-) girlfriend who admitted she bedd’d Rod (or was it Todd?) in Futur-Drama? Anyway, air travel becoming the subway compared to teleportation was somewhat funny, along with the “Dr. Suess’ birthday” reference to Google; however, the jokes that followed afterward weren’t very funny, and I didn’t really get (or didn’t really care for) the “Ralph’s clones” joke.

Overall, this episode was not very outstanding (not surprising?) with jokes, and the entire episode reminded me of a “The Simpsons” fan fiction I once read on an obscure “The Simpsons” fan site in the mid-2000s. Anyway, I’d rate this episode a 3/5, with a “so-so” B+.

Before starting this review, I want to say that this particular episode, titled “The Book Job,” sounds like uninteresting soon-to-be-dated dribble. The “tween literature” aspect of the episode is completely uninteresting, and unfunny at that. Roll the tape.

Ralph’s “I want to go back to Mommy” didn’t bring that much of a laugh, but it was chuckle-worthy and appropriate for the moment at hand (the ‘terrifying-for-younger-children’ dinosaur show). The “lit majors desperate for work”, followed by the subsequent hosing of an exhausted aforementioned lit major was funny, as well. Along with that, another funny moment was when Marge, upon being told by Lisa that Betty Crocker® was an invention by Marjorie Husted (?, unknown if this is the actual person mentioned by Lisa as creating Betty Crocker, but in actuality, she did), goes outside and, as seen through the kitchen window, dumps her remaining cake mixes in the garbage can.

At 23 minutes in, I have little to say; the plot is rather plain (yet at the same time interesting?), and there is little to note about this episode. The final minutes were predictable, the switch that Lisa made of the flash drives containing the two versions of Homer and the others’ fantasy novel has been done for the nth amount of times in media; however, this cliche’s damage, if any, is somewhat undone as Lisa points that she got the idea of switching the flash drives from every movie ever made.

All in all, the episode was generally plain; I’d give it a high B, 4/5.

I had written full reviews (around 2-5 pages long) of the last three episodes (THOH XXII, Replaceable You and The Food Wife), but I have misplaced the papers with the written reviews and I cannot find them whatsoever (way to go…), so in that stead, before I get another full review ready, I will just state the gist of all of what I can remember from the reviews I had already made.

Treehouse of Horror XXII (aired October 30, 2011)

The first segment of the newest addition to the THOHs was awful; it was all over the place and I didn’t enjoy many of the jokes. The second segment was a cheap Dexter parody, and I didn’t enjoy the ending with the reveal of Homer’s impersonation of God to get Ned to kill those that have caused some disturbance to Homer. The end of the second segment was not enjoyable either, with the reveal of Maude being Satan’s girlfriend in Hell. The third segment was yet another cheap parody, but this time for Avatar. I enjoyed part of the episode’s jokes, but I cannot remember which one specifically at this moment. All in all, I’d give this year’s Treehouse of Horror a low B-, 3/5.

Replaceable You (aired November 6, 2011)

This episode wasn’t anything too special, the guest appearance of Jane Lynch, at least in my opinion, was not needed; the ending to the A-plot, featuring Roz (Jane Lynch), had a cheap ending and I didn’t really understand what the significance of her despising physical contact had to do with anything of Homer being more intellectual than she had imagined. The B-plot, with Bart’s science project robotic-seals, was as the first one, nothing too special to mention. The death of [SPOILERS] Mrs. Glick was known to me before watching this episode (I had watched this episode weeks after its premiere and I had already the knowledge of Mrs. Glick’s ‘death’, the latter in quotations as you can’t rely on continuity anymore) but it was still a shock. All in all, this episode was semi-lackluster; I’d give it a high B-, 3.5/5.

The Food Wife (aired November 13, 2011)

This episode would be my favorite of the three, if I had to choose one; however, the beginningvideo game convention wasn’t that funny, and now that I remember it; in the 18th (17th?)season, didn’t they do a World of Warcraft parody entitled Earthland Realms in Marge Gamer (one of the better post-classics, in my opinion), so why did they go and do an unfunny parody titled World of Krustcrafthere? Marge’s line of elderly squirrels coming to die in her engine gave me a laugh, and the ‘Marge’ disco party in her mouth was chuckle-worthy. The animation in this episode was nicely done, the colors were vivid and the shadows in a few of the scenes were a nice touch.Whilst watching this episode, I got to thinking of how Marge’s character is not given very many episodes in recent years (she wasn’t many in the classic years, either, for that matter), I’d enjoy to see a funny, classic-era reminiscent (hell, quasi-classic era reminiscent) episode featuring Marge; I believe that Julie Kavner has the talent to hold an episode like that. All in all, I’d give this episode an A-, 4/5.

Tonight on Animation Domination, The Simpsons premieres their twenty-second Treehouse of Horror, dishing out three (however watered-down they may seem) new segments. Via Wikipedia;

A spider bite leaves Homer in a coma, but he is able to communicate through natural gases. Ned Flanders becomes a serial killer, in a parody of Dexter; and Bart and Milhouse are assigned to access a sacred extract on a distant planet.

Nothing too interesting this year; the Ned Flanders-centric segment had promise before I learned it was going to reference Dexter. We’ll just have to wait and see.